To Envy the Clouds
by Naruto-fan-Okami-chan
Summary: Troublesome...my love life is troublesome...that's why I don't want to deal with it. Now my dad's setting me up with Ino and Temari and I have to choose between them...why can't I just be carefree like the clouds? TemaShikaIno triangle Shikamaru-narrator


**To Envy the Clouds**

**A TemaShikaIno Narrative**

Troublesome, that about sums up my life; yet there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, because I have my obligations to the village and whatnot.

This is why I'm the guy with cloud envy.

'"'"

I'm not a very complex kind of guy, no matter how many times they call me a genius. I don't have any big goals or dreams I want to accomplish; my only hope is for a simple life style. I want to marry a girl who's not super pretty or ugly, I want to have two kids, a boy and a girl, the boy will become a ninja, the girl will one day get married, and I'll slip off into a peaceful retirement where I can just sit around and do what I normally do, play Shogi and watch the clouds.

My one problem is that the two girls who my dad considers eligible because of their "abilities" and the fact that they already have feelings for me are not the kind of girls I'd imagine living that vision of a peaceful life with: Ino Yamanaka and Temari of the Sand village.

I have no idea why my dad considers Ino, probably because she's on my team and she's "pretty", but I don't really see why that makes her eligible. I can slightly see Temari, because she's strong and everything, but she scares the hell out of me more than my own mother does.

Troublesome, relationships can be such a drag.

'"'"

I have respect in most cases when it comes to my father, the exception being when he deals with mom, but honestly, I think he needs a new philosophy on women. He says men need women to keep them happy, but so far I've failed to see that in both our lives. Sure, he _says _mom has her sweet moments, but I sure as hell haven't seen them yet, and now he wants to set me up with two loose firecrackers of temper. I have no idea where dad gets his sense of women.

Now, here's my dad's "plan" for me to pick my girl. He gave Temari a call and requested her to come over to see me. Unfortunately, she agreed. Though it gets worse, it takes three days to travel from the Land of Wind to the Land of Fire, and in those three days, I have to spend them all with Ino. I repeat: what. A. Drag.

'"'"

My first day with Ino was less that amazing. She got all pissed at me because I kept muttering to myself and would never tell her what I said; I had a good reason though. Telling a girl straight to her face that she wouldn't shut up when she started talking is a perfect way to get a punch in the gut or suddenly wake up in the hospital with a broken rib or fractured arm. I got a relief, however, when she got pissed at me anyway and "refused to talk to me". She has no idea what a good idea that was.

The second day went a little better. We ran into Choji and got to go out for barbeque. It's a whole other experience with Choji around rather than a lone, two person date, not that I'd consider me and Ino going to eat barbeque an official date. The downside was that Ino kept trying to scoot closer to me when I really didn't want the attention.

Day three was one big sequence of events that led into a huge headache. Ino and I took a walk around the village and ended up running into whom else but the loudmouth himself, Naruto. Naruto decided that he had to shout while he spoke, and loudly asked if Ino and I were on a date because we've been really close the past few days. I tried to deny it, seeing as this "date" was just a big drag, but Ino had to answer the question with an equally loud affirmative; though it doesn't end there, because who happened to have passed by at that very moment, but Temari. She had just arrived in the village, and was heading towards my place when she heard the whole thing. Needless to say she got pissed and stormed off to talk to my father.

Troublesome, troublesome, troublesome, what's the deal with women and their jealousy anyway?

'"'"

Well, I had a moment earlier where I could respect my dad for somehow managing to cool Temari down and still get her to agree to a three day pairing. There's one scary thing, though, her and my mother _get along_. They hit it off like best friends right off the bat, and now my mother is favoring Temari to win. My dad, however, has always been a bit more into the idea of me marrying a girl from my village, and is siding with Ino. Now I'm the unlucky bastard in the middle of all the chaos. To add to this, Temari just so happens to be staying at my house the entire time of her visit.

'"'"

Part two of my hell, day one went surprisingly well. Temari was in a good mood, and so was my mother. I guess this is the rare side of the devil women that my dad says keeps us men happy. I ended up taking Temari out for lunch and took her to a nice place in the village to hang out with surprising peace. My mom sure was delighted to hear about the day's success, and even I have to admit that it was a good time.

Day two has me stuck in a corner. There's something I never came to realize when I agreed to this whole "try out Temari" thing. I forgot her little brother, Gaara, is the Kazekage of the Sand Village, and happens to care about his big sister's happiness. This pretty much equals up to: if I break her heart, Gaara might break something physical of mine, namely my spine or my leg, or anything that can cause me some serious pain. This sucks, it's not a drag, it just plain sucks.

The final day of my hell, Temari was trying to make a good last impression on me to better persuade me into choosing her. The big mistake I made was taking her out and passing by Yamanaka Flowers as Ino had a clear view out the door. She bolted outside in a fit of rage when she saw me holding Temari's hand, and let's just say I quickly dropped it and backed away ten paces to let the cat fight ensue. In this case, though, I found myself worrying for Ino, rather than Temari, not because I cared about her safety in a protective manner, but because I knew Temari could beat her down any day, any time, and I didn't want to have Temari sent to a Konoha Prison for murder. I thanked the heavens, though, when Sakura came down the road and used her monster strength to stop the fight before it got extremely physical, but she still left me with two bloodthirsty kunoichi to deal with. Damn.

'"'"

The dates finally came to a close, and both girls stood in my house glaring daggers at one another. I'm not exactly sure what went down, though, because I wasn't even home. I managed to sneak out the window after leaving a fake "have official matters to attend to, immediately" note and escaped to my favorite roof to watch the clouds drifting by.

I watched the puffs float across the light blue sky and sighed in a longing way. This is why I envy the clouds, they can make any decision they want and they'll still turn out perfectly fine. Down here on earth, we have to make the _right _decisions if we want to make it anywhere in life, that's what's so troublesome about living. You can never just choose a random path and know it'll be okay in the end. That's why I ditched that matchmaking central, and came here, because while we all have to make the right choices in life, there are many where we can take our time, at least, to find the right answer and take the right path. Love and relationship is just one of those decisions I plan to make later on in life when I know I'm ready to make it. I'm not going to let my dad play matchmaker or let two girls be the "only ones I can choose".

For now I stick to the path of being single and proud. When the right girl comes along, or I know I can finally make a decision between the two girls who are probably arguing at my house at this very moment, I will. For now I'll try to be like the clouds, living life by taking any path I choose, though I'll try to keep it sort of logical so I at least live long enough to get married and fulfill my hope for the future.

For now, I'll try to live my life like the clouds. Free and undaunted by the future choices I'll have to make. Finally, there's something that doesn't sound so troublesome or like a drag. I just hope the girls don't find me, or those future choices will be thrown at me sooner than I want, and it probably won't be a fun experience.

**THE END**

**Ta-dah! How'd you guys like that one? Quite different compared to my normal style. Then again, everything was different in here. The characters I used, the formatting, the fact that there was no dialogue, just one man's point of view, and the fact that there was even a message! It was fun writing as Shikamaru. I find I can really relate to him sometimes. He's a genius who's trying to go along with life, I'm noted as an intelligent person, and like him, I'm not exactly someone to really look into the future. (Except with his plans to get married and have kids, I don't have any relationship plans whatsoever; I've even been single, like him, my whole life!) Hmmm…I guess most of the people who are going to read this are fans of ShikaxIno or Temari. Ummm…so, hi to all you people, because you probably won't know who I am, I come from the SasuSaku/occasionally NaruHina fan section…eh…well…I guess that's it. Please tell me what you thought about it! And for those wondering, I am a ShikaTema fan, it's just when I wrote this I was still torn between the two. Now I am certain of my views. **


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